Working Girls of Boston: Women at work in the 1880s

If you were one of 20,000 women employed in a non-domestic job in Boston in the 1880s, you probably worked a 10-hour day, six days a week and earned $6.03 for your weekly labors. You didn't have very much time off. If you were among the lucky one in five working women who had any vacation time at all, you probably didn't get paid. If you had a holiday, you were likely docked in pay. If you worked for one of the larger employers, you might even be docked in pay for being as little as a single minute late to work - in some instances, fines might be levied. And if you needed to be out sick, at least some jobs required that you find a substitute worker.

This profile was garnered from a 130+ page report entitled The Working Girls of Boston that was published in 1989. It's available online in its entirety from the Harvard University Library. The report was compiled from the 1880 census and from interviews with 1,032 working women.

The report is fascinating. The introduction states that " ... one of the chief reasons for undertaking the investigation, was to determine whether the ranks of prostitution are recruited from the manufactory" so part of the study included canvassing "all the houses of ill repute." In its summary, the report concludes that " ...the girls ... as a class, are honest, industrious and virtuous, and are making an heroic struggle against many obstacles, and in the face of many temptations, to maintain reputable lives."

Health & safety conditions: the workroom and its surroundings
It's difficult to get an objective picture of the health and safety conditions in terms of numbers since objective criteria were not used. Women reported on their own health and working conditions. In describing health, terms were often imprecise, such as "delicate," "robust," or "middling." Measurement standards commonly used today were similarly imprecise. One section of the report discusses lost time, stating that 758 girls lost an average of 12.32 weeks of work in the preceding year, but reasons varied, including " ... dull times, lack of work, sickness of self, children or relatives, or on account of machines being out of order and awaiting repairs."

While most workers described their working conditions as satisfactory to good, a very different picture emerges as you continue reading. Many complained of tiredness from climbing "four, five, six, or even seven flights" to reach higher floors in buildings with poor egress and lack of fire escapes, a foreshadowing of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire.

Other complaints pointed to the stamina needed for long hours spent standing or operating manually powered equipment. The report focuses less on safety and injuries and more on the overall effects of work on general health, referring frequently to tiredness, nerves, exhaustion, or women being run down and needing rest after being on the job for a period of time. Medical conditions like blood poisoning, consumption, and lung problems were also reported.

Common injuries
There were complaints about poor ventilation and crowded conditions, referencing exposure to dyes that cause "acid sores" on the fingers and dust from sorting feathers, straw, or cotton. Exposure to lead dust in foundries was common and thought to be unhealthy, resulting in "girls and men having little or no color in their faces," and even some reports of girls having died from the effects. In fish packing plants, girls stood in cold water, and wore the skin off their bare hands from handling fish packed in pepper and saltpeter.

Manufacturing buttons resulted in frequent accidents from catching fingers in machines. They must have been frequent because someone (probably not a doctor) was on hand to treat the resulting injuries — ... a man is provided to dress injuries three times at no charge, after that the injured person must pay all expenses.

In addition to dangerous work, the overall conditions sound bleak. A lack of adequate toilet facilities was described, and facilities sometimes were located in the center of the work space, emitting noxious odors. Women were said to suffer "evil effects" of "waiting for the use of a closet."

The report is an interesting read in offering an historical view of women in the work force. The patronizing benevolence runs thick, and it is telling that the concern for their morals seems to have equal or greater weight than any concern for their physical well-being. It also paints a picture of conditions for the worker in the decades leading to the 1911 passage of the Workers Compensation Act.